Redolent of "Glee" at its (almost) finest, this ad showed the sheer exuberance that occurs when you get a Surface in your hands, discover that it makes a clicking noise, and feel the quite insane need to wave it around in public.

All it was missing was George Michael.

Some people enjoyed it. Some thought it the second coming of a bygone era. Perhaps the latter is precisely the effect Microsoft was trying to achieve.

But the Surface Pro is supposed to be a heavy-duty machine for heavy-duty things like, um, spreadsheets and firing plans.

Doesn't repeating the danceathon with people in nice suits lead one to think that this Surface is precisely the same product as in the original "Glee" ad?

Hey, remember that Surface thing? You can use it at the office, too. Yes, you can even wave two of them around at once, as you're heading into the quarterly finance meeting.

I suppose some will notice the pen being wielded. But is this a good thing?

Perhaps the aim is merely to tell you that this Surface For Business is called something different from the other one.

Perhaps, too, the aim is for the product to have sex appeal. This might have factored into getting the director of Justin Bieber's seminal "Never Say Never" movie to again exercise his skills here.

About the author

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world.
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